Interorganizational Social Capital: Examining Structural Holes, Closure, and Constrained Choice Models of Civil Society Networks

• In Event: B.E.S.T.: Communication Networks in and Between Organizations

Abstract

Organizations in the civil society sector pursue organizational social capital through the formation and maintenance of interorganizational relationships. Scholars have suggested three strategies that enhance social capital: closure, exploitation of structural holes, and “cupid” collaboration arrangements. We examine the evidence for each of these three strategies in a network of 489 international nongovernmental organizations during a 14 year period (1990-2004) using Separable Temporal Exponential Random Graph Modeling. The results provide strong support for closure mechanisms, particularly in the first half of the observation period. In contrast, social capital generation through structural holes and cupid relationships is present in only a few years, and those strategies do not persist over time. Overall, this network of civil society organizations dominantly uses a strategy of generating collective social capital by forging multiple collaborative ties among the INGOs which constitute this community.

Authors

• Nina F. O'Brien, California State University Los Angeles

• Andrew Nicholas Pilny, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

• Yannick Atouba, U of Texas - El Paso

• Michelle D. Shumate, Northwestern University